CHILDLESSNESS- A DEEPLY PERSONAL TRAGEDY.

Dr. Manish Banker, a doyen of Artificial Reproductive Technology(ART), a Pioneer in Infertility Treatment shares stories of Fulfilling lives of thousands of couples, a Social reformer.

Dr. Manish Banker is on a crusade and his mission is to raise the standards of Artificial Reproductive Technology (ART) in India to the best in the world – in terms of protocols, processes, and results. Simultaneously, he wishes to bring transparency and accountability to the field of ART, a field of medicine in India that is mired in false claims, unethical practices and opaque fees charged for fertility treatment.

Few people in the world are better equipped to do this than Dr. Banker, the Doyen of ART in India. Dr. Banker is Ranked among the top infertility specialists in India, he received his MBBS from Gujarat University. He then went on to do his MD at Gujarat University in 1987, winning the Gold Medal for his academic performance. Shortly thereafter, he did an advanced Diploma in Endoscopy from the University of Kiel, Germany.

One of the pioneers in IVF in India, His clinic Nova IVF, was the first stand-alone IVF clinic in India to receive NABH accreditation [Small Health Care Organization] from the Quality Council of India. Since inception (1996), over 10,000 successful IVF procedures have been carried out at his center, at Ahmedabad alone.

In 2011, Pulse Women’s Hospital joined hands with Nova Medical Centres and IVI, Spain; with the objective of creating a chain of IVF Centres (known as pureplay IVF centers as they do not offer any other medical services but fertility treatment) that would set the benchmarks of best doctors, embryologists, IVF laboratories in both equipment and protocols, and establish gold standards in treatment and transparency adopting a three-pronged approach – medical, financial & emotional wellbeing.

Today, his brainchild now known as Nova IVF Fertility is universally respected for taking the science of
ART forward and raising global standards. It is India’s one of the biggest, most reliable and technologically advanced IVF chain, with 20 established IVF clinics in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hisar, Hyderabad, Indore, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Surat and Vijayawada, setting an example to all the other clinics operating in this field.

With decades of experience, Dr. Banker has a slew of honors to his credit: He is a Member of the Draft
Committee for ART Bill of India, I. C. M. R., Ministry of Health and is the Regional representative for the
International Committee for Monitoring ART [ICMART]. He has also been a Founder Board Member of the Asia Pacific Initiative on Reproductive Endocrinology [ASPIRE] [2006 – 2008]. He has been the President of the Indian Society for Assisted Reproduction and Chairman of the infertility Committee of Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India [FOGSI]. He sits on the Board of Directors
of Pacific Rim Society of Reproductive Medicine and Surveillance Board of IFFS. He was the Scientific Co-Chair of IFFS 2016.

Further to these honored positions, Dr. Banker is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Human
Reproductive Sciences (JHRS) and Clinical and Experimental and Reproductive Medicine (CERM) and is a reviewer for RBM Online and Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics (JARG).

In his endeavor to bring professionalism to the field, he has published the National ART Registry of India for 10 years. In addition, he has had numerous publications in indexed journals to his credit and has contributed chapters to a range of textbooks.

In addition to his extremely packed calendar dealing with his medical commitments, Dr. Banker is also a
passionate teacher, very keen to transmit medical knowledge and his ethical outlook to new generations
of fertility specialists. As a result, he is the Course Director and PG teacher for the 2-year Fellowship in Reproductive Medicine offered by the National Board of Examinations, India and is also the Course Director of the 1-year fellowship in ART offered by Nova IVF Fertility.

Widely known and recognized internationally as one of the worldwide leaders in the field, he is constantly in demand to lecture at conferences and industry meetings – in India and around the World.

Dr. Banker is often asked about the role of fertility treatment in a country as populous as India. To this, his response is, “There are nearly 27 million infertile couples in the country. To each of them, childlessness is a deeply personal tragedy. While the population of India is indeed a daunting statistic, to my patients I bring the hope of a complete family.”

Dr. Banker has been awarded the prestigious ‘Dr. B. C. Roy National Award for the year 2017-by the Medical Council of India in the category- “to recognize the best talent in encouraging the development of specialties in different branches of medicine.”

Dr. Banker and his teams, commitment to such infertile patients using ethical standards, ensure that these pregnancies are safe for the mother and child as well as fulfilling for the family.In absence of experienced and driven staff, all of these families would be dealing with the sadness of childlessness.